The financial value of coal and other commodities they extracted from property under lease with the federal government;

Expenses related to their work on the these properties;

Royalties, fees, and other public remittances paid to the U.S. government as part of activities related to these commodities; and

The total projected value of their extractive activity on federal lands.

“This information will help…determine whether our federal lands are currently being put to the best use,” Grijalva wrote. “Taxpayers rightly demand the maximum financial benefit from publicly owned property and commodities.”

Although the U.S. government collects royalties for oil and gas extracted from public lands and federal waters, the same isn’t true for hard rock mining of silver, gold, copper and other minerals on federal land. The federal government currently does not collect royalties for mineral development on public land.

First of all, the federal Minerals Management Service [now known as the BOEMRE, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement] that existed prior to this administration - and I give them credit for reforming in this area - I think there's been a cozy relationship with the agencies and industry. I just think it's been overlooked. It's been considered a non-issue in environmental fights. But now that money has entered so heavily into the discussion, that will change.

Fuelfix also noted that policymakers have been discussing mineral royalties recently:

President Barack Obama proposed changing that practice in his fiscal 2012 budget request earlier this year, and the idea has been debated sporadically on Capitol Hill.

Any new data about revenue from oil and gas development — and the lack of royalties from hard rock mining — could pave the way for changes on Capitol Hill. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar also has been examining royalty rates charged for oil and gas extracted from public lands and waters and has raised the possibility that some of those charges could be hiked.

“By signing onto the global standard that EITI sets,” the U.S. National Action Plan reads, “the U.S. Government can help ensure that American taxpayers are receiving every dollar due for the extraction of these valuable public resources.”

Meanwhile, human rights and pro-disclosure groups are pushing the SEC to finalize a Dodd-Frank rule that would require resource extraction issuers to disclose payments made to governments if the issuer is "required to file an annual report with the SEC" and "engages in the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals."

Oil and gas royalties brought in about $9 billion to the federal government in 2009, according to the GAO.

Find a statement by Grijalva here. Grijalva's office has posted the letters here. Read up on POGO’s work exposing corruption related to oil and gas royalties in our 2008 report, Drilling the Taxpayer.